Siena's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is a recurring theme in the
art of the city, from the decoration on the facade of the cathedral,
begun by Giovanni Pisano (1284 onwards) to the Maesta ("majesty")
masterpieces of Duccio (1309) and Simone Martini (1315). The links
with the historical awareness of the city, where religious and civic
feelings met. are manifested in the many chronicles describing the
triumphal procession that accompanied Duccio's Maesta. from his
studio to the high altar of the cathedral. Painted for the victory
over the Florentines atMontaperti, even recorded by Dante in his Divine Comedy, the great
altarpiece shows, on one side, the Story of the New Testament and.
on the other, that of the enthroned Virgin and saints. Simone
Martini painted his earliest surving work, the large Maesta fresco
for Siena Town Hall, with similar celebratory intentions. He
magnified the elegance of line and colour with which Duccio had
founded a new school of Sienese painting.

One of the greatest Italian painters of the Middle Ages and the founder
of the Sienese school. In Duccio's art the formality of the Italo-Byzantine
tradition, strengthened by a clearer understanding of its evolution from
classical roots, is fused with the new spirituality of the Gothic style.
Greatest of all his works is “Maestą” (1311), the altarpiece of Siena
cathedral.

Beginnings

There is little documented information about Duccio's life and career.
In large part his life must be reconstructed from the evidence of those
works that can be attributed to him with certainty, from the evidence
contained in his stylistic development, and from the learning his
paintings reveal. Duccio's father was from the town of Buoninsegna, near
Siena, but at the time of Duccio's birth he lived in the town of
Camporegio. He is first mentioned in 1278, when the treasurer of the
commune of Siena commissioned him to decorate 12 strongboxes for
documents. The following year he was given the task of decorating one of
the wooden covers of the account books of the treasury. That Duccio was
doing work more appropriate for an artisan than an artistmust not lead
one to assume that even at this time he was only a beginner. It is known
that services of this type were requested, both in Siena and in
Florence, of already established painters. Further, the fact that he was
designated as “painter” and was working for himself demonstrate that he
was a mature and independent artist by1278. In 1280 Duccio was fined the
large sum of 100 lire by the commune of Siena for some unrecorded
misconduct. Thiswas the first of a considerable number of fines that the
artist incurred at various times and for various reasons, and they
suggest that he was of a restless and rebellious temperament. He was
fined more than once for nonpayment of debts; in 1295 he was penalized
for refusing to pledge allegiance to the head of the popolo party; in
1302 for not appearing for military duty; and in the same year for what
appears to have been practicing sorcery.

The “Madonna Rucellai.” On April 15, 1285, the Compagnia dei Laudesi, or
singers of praise, of the Virgin Mary at the church of Sta. Maria
Novella in Florence, commissioned “Duccio di Buoninsegna, painter of
Siena” to paint a great altarpiece that was to represent the Madonna and
Child together with otherfigures. For the work he was to be paid
150florins, but if the painting, which had to be “a most beautiful
picture” and had to havea gold border, was not satisfactory, the artist
would receive no reimbursement. Despite the fact that this employment
contract, preserved in the State Archives of Florence, came to light in
1790 and was published in 1854, it was only in 1930 that it was
indisputably determined that the document referred to the Madonna of
Sta. Maria Novella, now called the “Madonna Rucellai.” From the time of
Giorgio Vasari, a minor Florentine Renaissance painter who was the
earliest, and probably the most influential, biographer of early Italian
artists, this altarpiece, which was the largest yet painted, was
considered to be a masterpiece of the Florentine painter Cimabue.
Vasari's attribution, whereas it was probably due in part to a desire
not to deprive the Florentine school and its founder of credit for so
brilliant a work, was accepted almost unanimously until the present
century because of strong similarities to thework of Cimabue in the
“Madonna Rucellai.” Some recent critics, no longer able to deny that the
work is by Duccio, have concluded that he was a pupil, and in all
essentials of his art even an imitator, of Cimabue.
The problem of the relative influence of Cimabue upon Duccio is
critically very complex. The “Madonna Rucellai” shows affinities with
the work of Cimabue in the type of the Virgin, in the serious and robust
Child, and in the faces of the six adoring angels; nevertheless, it
reveals strikingly new stylistic innovations in the softness of the
angels set in midair, in the elegant and subtle lines, in the first
feeling of French Gothic animated sweetness and spirituality, and in the
light and shade modulation of the free-flowing, clear brush strokes.
There is no doubt that his knowledge of Cimabue's work was one of the
components of Duccio's style at this time, but it was not the
predominant, nor even the earliest influence; very probably Cimabue's
influence was a late insertion into a personal style that had already
evolved within the framework of the well-developed Sienese tradition. In
the years between 1260 and 1280, largely due to the inspiration of its
magnificent cathedral, Siena had emerged as one of the most vital
centres of art in Italy. A remarkable successionof altarpieces by
Sienese painters testifies to the simultaneous work of a number of
artists, some of whom possessed quite distinct personalities. The
variety of orientations of these painters shows that they did not work
in provincial isolation but were sensitive to the diverse influences of
the age, including Cimabue.
Duccio certainly studied these painters and was influenced by them.
Notably evident in his style are the influence of the older painter
Guido da Siena with the serene dignity of his figures, permeated by
lyrical tenderness and grace, in the now-fading stylized postures of the
Byzantine tradition, and of the master of the “St. John the Baptist
Altarpiece” in the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena, with his complex
Byzantine iconography and his vivid, dense colouring. Duccio was ableto
draw from sources outside Siena as well: from the combination of linear
stylization and Hellenistic types that characterized the illustrations
of books imported from Constantinople and also from contemporary French
Gothic miniatures, with their lively tone and lyrical, animated
stylizations of clothing and gesture. Duccio may also have travelled to
Florence in his early years, coming into contact with Cimabue, but such
an explanation is not entirely necessary to account for the formation of
his style. In fact, in Duccio's only certain work prior to the “Madonna
Rucellai,” echoes of Cimabue are even less apparent than in the Rucellai
altarpiece. The conclusion that Duccio was nothing more than a follower
of Cimabue at the time he painted the “Madonna Rucellai” is implausible
and overlooks the originality, as well as the excellence, of the work.
If, in fact, he was in 1285 entrusted with a work of such significance
at Florence, his reputation must have already been establishedand have
spread beyond the confines of his native Siena.

Later commissions

Traces of Duccio's association with Cimabue remain in the large round
stained-glass window of the choir of the Siena cathedral, for which
Duccio made the designs. This work was commissioned between 1287 and
1288 and is the earliest known example of stained glass produced by an
Italian.
Numerous documents attest to Duccio's action in Siena during the 20
years following the creation of the “Madonna Rucellai.” He was by now
the leading painter of the city and as such executed in 1302 an
altarpiece, now lost, for the altar of the chapel of the Palazzo
Pubblico, the city hall. During this period, some unsigned and
undocumented altarpieces appeared, and some of these are certainly
Duccio's work; the most significant of these is a small altarpiece
representing the Virgin enthroned with angels andcalled “The Madonna of
the Franciscans” because of the three monks kneeling at the foot of the
throne. In this work a developed Gothic style appears in the curving
outlines, which give an exquisite decorative effect.
The work in which the genius of Duccio unfolds in all its brilliant
fullness and the one to which the painter owes his greatest fame,
however, is the “Maesta,” the altarpiece for the main altar of the
cathedral of Siena. He was commissioned to do this work on Oct. 9, 1308,
for a payment of 3,000 gold florins, the highest figure paid to an
artist up to that time. On June 9, 1311, the whole populace of Siena,
headed by the clergy and civil administration of the city, gathered at
the artist's workshop to receive the finished masterpiece. They carried
it in solemn procession to the accompaniment of drums and trumpets to
the cathedral. For three days alms were distributed to the poor, and
great feasts were held. Never before had the birth of a work of art been
greeted with such public jubilation and never before had there been such
immediate awareness that a work was truly a masterpiece and not just a
reflection of the religious fervour of the people. Duccio himself was
aware of the work's significance; he signed the throne of the Virgin
with an invocation that was devout yet proud for the time: “Holy Mother
of God, grant peace to Siena, and life to Duccio because he has painted
you thus.”
The “Maesta” is in the form of a large horizontal rectangle, surmounted
by pinnacles, and with a narrow horizontal panel, or predella, as its
base. It is painted on both sides. The entire central rectangle of the
front side is a single scene showing the Madonna and Child enthroned in
the middle of a heavenly court of saints and angels with the four patron
saints of Siena kneeling at their feet. The back is subdivided into 26
compartments that illustrate the Passion of Christ. The front and back
of the predella contain scenes of the infancy and the ministry of Jesus,
and the pinnacles, crowning the entire work, represent events after the
Resurrection. In all, there are 59 narrative scenes.
The rigorous symmetry with which the groups of adoring figures at the
sides of the Virgin are arranged in the imposing scene of the central
panel is inspired by compositions of the Byzantine tradition and gives
evidence of Duccio's keen architectural sensibility by its power to draw
attention to the “Maestą” as the true focal point of the cathedral's
spatial and structural organization. Like elements of a living
architecture, the 30 figures, through the slightest of gestures and
turnings of the head, are intimatelyrelated, their positions repeated to
give a feeling of intense lyrical contemplation. The consonance of
feeling that arises from this contemplation gives the facial features of
each a distinct, spiritual beauty, reminiscent, especially the faces of
the angels, of the more idealistic creations of Hellenistic art. The
Madonna, slightly larger than the other figures, seated on a magnificent
and massive throne of polychrome marbles, inclines her head gently as if
trying to hear the prayer of the faithful. Duccio thus succeeds in
reconciling perfectly the Byzantine ideal of power and dignity with the
underlying tenderness and mysticism of the Sienese spirit. The scenes in
the predella, pinnacles, and back are filled with the Byzantine
iconographic schemes from which Duccio finds it difficult to detach
himself, and they are developed with a deeper concern for their
narrative significance. The scenes are not, however, merely descriptions
or chronicles. They include many touches from daily life, which provide
a lyrical synthesis that harmonizes the character and gestures of the
figures with their landscape and architectural surroundings.

Last years

Only scanty bits of information are available about the few years that
Duccio lived after the completion of the “Maesta.” He had a prosperous
workshop from which other works emerged, but they seem to have been
executed in great part by students. His financial condition must have
been quite sound because by 1304 he bought a vineyard in the
neighbourhood of Siena. Nevertheless, in 1313 he was once again deep in
debt. At death he was survived by his wife, Taviana, and seven children.
At least two of his children, Galgano and Giorgio, were painters, but
nothing is known about their work or their merits. The identity of one
of his direct followers is known, his nephew Segna di Buonaventura.

Founder and most celebrated exponent of the Sienese school, Duccio
(1260-1318) is famous for his Maesta, the beautiful double-sided
altarpiece commissioned in 1308 for Siena Cathedral. Breaking away
from Byzantine tradition, Duccio's painting displayed an exquisite
sensitivity, with superb use of colour, elegant modelling, and a
lively narrative.